


Run away with us

by epersonae



Series: The Journal-Keeper [20]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Camping, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, F/M, Fischer eats a library, Fischer has opinions about books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 11:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12934620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: “You’re feeding it books?!” she says, an expression of absolute horror on her face.Lucretia takes a break. Magnus reads some books. Fischer has opinions about literature.





	Run away with us

**Author's Note:**

> For day four of Magcretia Week, remember/forget.

She’s practicing her shield again when he approaches with a backpack on his back and Fischer floating by his side.

“You’ve been doing that for weeks!” he shouts into the translucent bubble. 

She frowns and expands it by a few inches before letting the shield drop.

He steps towards her, palms up, while Fischer hums happily, and says, “Take a break?”

“I don’t know.”

“Aw, it’ll be fun. We’ll toast marshmallows. And if you want you can practice your bubble there.”

“It’s a shield,” she says, her expression still stern and focused. “Bubble sounds so…. Frivolous?”

“Okay okay, shield. Oh, and yeah, books! We’ve been camping in a library!” He drops his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Fischer likes to eat ‘em.” The creature trills a sort of assent.

“You’re feeding it books?!” she says, an expression of absolute horror on her face.

“It’s not like anybody’s gonna miss ‘em,” and he spreads his arm out to the eerily silent landscape around them.

“Are any of them good enough to rebroadcast, at least?”

“I guess not. Hasn’t, anyway.” 

“How sad.” She squints at the jellyfish. “It’s gotten bigger in the last few weeks, I think,” she says, reaching out a hand towards its bell.

“You think?”

She tilts her head and takes a step towards it.

“I think so. Maybe it gets bigger when it eats information?”

He looks at it too a similar quizzical expression.

“Huh. No kidding. I wonder how big it’d get if I fed it the whole library?” He pets its bell and the lights within sparkle.

“Magnus!”

“Just sayin’. Anyway, come with us? Fischer loves it when you read stories….”

She smiles.

“I’d need to pack a few things.”

He reaches up and pats his backpack.

“I already gotcha. Couple days of clothes, extra-big bedroll for snugglin’?” He winks at her and she blushes.

“So this was just gonna  _ happen _ ?”

He shrugs. She slips her hand in his, leans up and kisses his cheek.

“Alright then, let’s go read some books to a jellyfish.”

* * *

It’s like it is so many times: she’s writing and sketching, trying to capture a moment and freeze it onto a page (two pages at once), while he’s occupied entertaining this happy little creature. Only now, he’s not carving, nor is he playing at ducks: he’s reading aloud. Slowly, painfully to her ears, but he’s reading, and Fischer is trilling happily as it does at everything he does.

Then Fischer snags the book out of his hands — if she could assign it an emotion, she would call it impatient — and the volume disappears entirely into its bell. Then: lights, a universe of stars, as the words themselves dissolve into the creature.

They don’t talk about what happens next, but it confirms for her the strange thing that happened at dinner a while back: she remembers everything. He remembers nothing. She doesn’t tell him that she remembers. She doesn’t know why she doesn’t tell him, only that it feels private. Personal.

* * *

“Hey, I'm gonna go get some firewood before it gets too dark, you okay by yourself with Fischer?”

She looks around the lifeless library ruins, then raises an eyebrow. 

“We're ready to fend off the hordes of attackers, aren't we, buddy?” she says, looking at Fischer instead of Magnus. 

“Okay, okay, jeez. Just trying to do my  _ job _ .”

They wander the stacks after he leaves; she pulls books off of the shelves more or less at random, reading off titles, flipping through and reading paragraphs out of order.

She discovers that the jellyfish has preferences: indifference to technical texts, magic compendiums, manuals and the like. A great enthusiasm for histories. Poetry it digests slowly, the lights swirling as the texts disappear, as if savoring. 

Magnus returns as she's trying to feed it a romantic novel. There isn't much fiction here that she can find, just an endcap with titles in aggressively fancy lettering. 

“Oh, careful —”

And the volume is hurled back at her with startling speed. Magnus snatches it out of the air just before it reaches her face. 

“Yeah, Fischer doesn't like those so much.” He sets the offending volume back on the shelf. “There was a section of adventure tales around here someplace, ate through ‘em in no time.”

He kisses the top of her head. Fischer trills and floats back between the shelves. The corner of her mouth quirks up into a smile. 

“Maybe they think they see too much of that in real life,” she says. “Don't need it in stories.”

His laugh echoes through the stacks. 

* * *

They’re full of marshmallows and rehydrated camp food, and Fischer is full of abandoned texts. A soft darkness has fallen over the library: in the distance, they can see the glow of the plane of magic slicing across the sky. It reminds her a bit of worlds with strong auroras, but it’s more of a steady constant glow.

He’s taken out the bedroll and they’re curled up together, Fischer resting at their feet. His chin rests on the top of her head; their legs are intertwined. The fire crackles, the only sound for miles around.

“Thought you were gonna practice your shield,” he says.

She hums.

“Maybe tomorrow. Had too much fun with you and Fischer.”

He runs a hand along her arm.

“ _ See _ , time for a little break. Just you, me, Fischer, and all these tasty, tasty books.” He makes his fingers and thumb look like a mouth, his fingertips pretending to nibble her cheek. “Nomnomnom story’s all gone.”

She laughs; Fischer sings a high happy note. 

“More food for you tomorrow, bud,” he says. “And hey, maybe we'll find something good enough you'll wanna share.” Another little note, and the jellyfish settles down into their companionable silence. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [Take a Break](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZCkko_t_rs). (For bonus FEELING AN EMOTION, check out this animatic: [Lucretia is Non-Stop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQt9Yu31wT0).)


End file.
